Peters' Bluster Brings $15,000 Legal Challenge

Former Axanar advisor Mike Bawden wants Peters to repay the rest of a $30,000 loan

And now, from Iowa comes a second new legal problem producer Alec Peters needs to deal with in the wake of his lawsuit against former Axanar director Robert Meyer Burnett.

After Peters followed through on his threat to sue Burnett, Bawden warned Peters litigation against Burnett, now Bawden’s business partner, would likely end any possibility Bawden might forgive the debt.

AxaMonitor has obtained court records filed Monday showing former Axanar PR director Mike Bawden, once Peters’ closest advisor, wants Peters to finish paying back a $30,000 loan.

Among the documents is a promissory note from Peters promising to repay the 2016 loan — right in the middle of the CBS/Paramount copyright lawsuit against Axanar — of $30,000 by December 31, 2016.

The loan was obviously meant to be short-term help during a time when Peters was bleeding money from his failed attempt to establish a commercial studio in California using donors’ money meant for producing Axanar.

Peters’ full repayment is almost three years late, though he paid $20,000 of the principal nearly two years late. The amount Peters still owes now adds 10 percent annual interest.

According to the promissory note, Peters secured the loan by putting up his once-voluminous prop and and costume collection as collateral. If he failed to pay up, Bawden would own part of that collection.

Peters’ promissory note requires him to hand over the collateral if he fails to pay all he owes by December 2016, a date he’s already missed, or within 10 days of Bawden’s formal demand:

“The security [Peters’ props and costumes] will be immediately provided to the Lender [Bawden] and the Lender is granted all rights of repossession as a secured party.”

Adding to the total Peters owes, now that a formal petition for repayment has been filed in Iowa District Court, will be attorneys’ fees and costs, something Peters agreed to in the promissory note. Those costs are now adding up.

Peters has 20 days from being served to respond or pay, or the court will enter a default judgment for the amount sought by Bawden, or the equivalent value from Peters’ props and costumes.

This legal action is the latest in the growing amount of litigation in which Peters is involved. Meanwhile, despite his bluster in the Burnett case, his attorney has yet to file an affidavit Burnett was even formally served Peters’ legal complaint, effectively stalling the suit indefinitely.

Leaving loyalists: This case also exemplifies the growing dissatisfaction now being publicly aired by former Axanar loyalists, a growing list including two directors, an editor, screenwriter and fulfillment director (also Peters’ former girlfriend), in addition to Bawden.

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